Google plans algorithm to kill kiddie porn

Google is considering writing changes to its search engine algorithm which will send its spiders in search of kiddie porn and ban the sites which show them.

The company committed $5 million to “eradicate child-abuse imagery online” and started a $2 million Child Protection Technology Fund to encourage the development of better tools to destroy child porn. Google said that it is working on a new database of flagged images of child porn and abuse that can be shared with other search engines and child-protection organisations.

The database of kiddie porn built by the spiders will help create systems that automatically eliminate that sort of content.

“Recently, we’ve started working to incorporate encrypted ‘fingerprints’ of child sexual-abuse images into a cross-industry database,” Jacquelline Fuller, the director of Google Giving, wrote in the blog post. “This will enable companies, law enforcement, and charities to better collaborate on detecting and removing these images and to take action against the criminals.”

If the database is effective, any flagged image would not be searchable through participating search engines or web-hosting providers. And maybe best of all, computers will automatically flag and remove these images without any human needing to see them.